Babylon and Persia
The Babylonians conquer Egypt in 605BC. They discover they can not control Egypt with the Israelites there. They would forever fight for the land that God had given them. They can control the slaves of Egypt for they know they are slaves… but the Israelites believe they are free and will cause rebellions.
Solution …in 586 BC they are moved to Babylon and worked as slaves where they can keep an eye on them. They take all the Kings family and Priests that controlled the Israelites to Babylon.
539 BC, the Persians, conquer Babylon and Egypt. The Persians that believe in one God, Ahuramazda the people and lands of civilization of Mitanni, where the Semitic peoples of the Hyskos had come from. The land that is next to Mount Ararat where Noah's ship landed. Where Abrahams people came through on their way to Egypt.
It is now 500 years before Christ. The Persians now rule over Babylon to the south, and Egypt to the West... and they permit the Israelites to return to their promised land. Why would the Persians allow the Israelites to return to Israel?
From a military or diplomatic perspective they felt they could rule the lands of Egypt with their alliance. The Persians can have Judea control Egypt. The Priests and Kings of the Israelites have lived in Babylonian captivity for over 50 years. In a sense the Kings and priests of the Jews have been liberated. Those who return to control the land of Israel would remain well connected to the peoples back in Persia and the former Babylon. This is the best way for the Persians to control the new lands of both Egypt and Babylon.
Of course the Greeks and Macedonians, who the arch enemies of the Persians, hate this.
The Israelites that were taken to Babylon were not just any Israelites, they are the ones that knew the truth. They would have been in fact part of the Egyptian upper class. The wise powerful ruling class always weds with each other. They are the ones that rule the lower classes through ignorance, with the power of the "reality" that can be spun.
By now the Israelites had been in Babylon for 50 years and are well established. About 10% come back to take their kingdom and to once again control the nation of Israel.
Pause for a moment and feel the times these were. It is 500 BC, Greece is a people that comes in and out of Persian control. Macedonia, where Alexander the Great would come from, were barbarians. Rome has just been founded. 150 years later Aristotle will come from Persia to teach. Pythagoras would go to Egypt to learn the mysteries and mathematics.
Only a few Greeks had some rudimentary form of democracy. To not be a slave meant you were not part of civilization and your children would starve from time to time. To be a slave meant you would worship your master. People wanted to be slaves, this is why Moses has a hard time keeping the Israelites from going back to Egypt.
Few could read, and less studied. The a few scholars would study in secret societies. Even Aristotle disapproved of writing because it made for poor memory.
You simply believed what you were told, and that is how you were governed, through your hunger and ignorance.
Secret societies, and priesthoods would be careful who they told. The Druids, the Magi, the Pythagoreans, the cult of Dionysus, Mithraism, and so on.
With the Pharisees put in place in Israel, the Persians could now rule Egypt and have a military force to protect it… the Israelites. The slaves in Egypt would be ruled by the priest hood and the Pharaoh, and the Israelites would defend the border once again all governed secretively from the top.
Remember that all this came about because of climate change. Populations are growing, people began to migrate.
At this point in our history you notice migrations from the north. These people are the sociological clash between Hunters and Gathers and established river based civilizations
They would come and live on the fringes… they would be the barbarians. The people from the colder north that had migrated south. Macedonia and Villanova would be the perfect place for them to settle. It is here where now the climate having warmed up after the flood, their populations culturally stabilize and began to grow and prosper.
Macedonia
From northern Greece, Macedonia, would come Alexander the Great. In 325 BC his armies would conquer first the Persians and then the Egyptians.
In Egypt, Alexander fights the Israelites in Palestine, and then enters Egypt and is welcomed. Now why is that? Why would he fight in Palestine and then be called God when he enters Egypt? Because Israelites would in fact be the army that is governing Egypt for the Persians. Egypt had been ruled by both the Persians, and the "Hyskos". Remember the Hyskos, the "one God", people from Mitanni, Hebrew people that the Egyptians thought they had dealt with in Exodus.
The Persians are the people of the profit Zarathustra, of the one God Ahuramazda. The Israelites also believe in one God. To the Egyptian and Greek Religion...there is no greater bad than to ignore all the other Gods.
Alexander the Great, is also polytheistic, he is of the cult of Dionysus. The God's and religious traditions of the Macedonians, the Greeks and the Egyptians are much more akin that those of the Persians and Israelites.
When Alexander enters Egypt he is in fact is liberating them from the Israelites that have been working with the Persians. The Egyptian high priest hood and religion is once whole, for the Greeks have the same Gods of the stars. Of course Alexander is the liberator and the Hero and must be God as well.
From this day, all the Pharaohs, will be Macedonian kings. They will be Greeks until Cleopatra dies, and there are no more Pharaohs. Since all people in Egypt at this time are slaves and know only what they are told, things go back to normal. The Egyptian priesthood will support the new Macedonian rulers.
The Kings of Judea will govern their people and profit from them under the new Macedonian rule. Pharisees continue to reinforce belief to the Israelites. The Priests of the Pharaoh continue to reinforce belief to their slaves in Egypt. The warrior class of the Hebrew once again live in peace with the slave class of the Egyptians all under the world rule of the Greeks.
The Macedonians have done well for themselves.
Villanova
Macedonia is a land to the north of Greece …Villanova is a land to the north of Italy.
Villanova will not do badly either. They are the Etruscans, and they begin to take lands too. They establish Rome in about 500 BC. These Romans are basically Greek in what they believe… same Gods different names, same basic folk. Sort of like England and the United States. The Romans are the young and crazy Americans taking lands from others and advancing the Greek mentality and civilization.
From the time of Alexander the Great in 325 B.C. till about the year 1 all is just fine. The slaves in Egypt are happy because ignorance is bliss. Each time a new Pharaoh comes into power the slaves are told of the miracles he can perform, battles with non existent peoples that he wins. That is what good priests do, they support the Pharaoh. High society lives well, Persian, Greek, and Egyptian upper classes all enjoy the fruits of the labor of slaves... Those who know, ruling those that do not know.
Remember these are Macedonians that control Egypt, not Greeks… Greeks like democracy. Macedonians have kings. The only thing the slaves of Egypt and of the old Persian empire need to know is what they are told. The Israelites need to know only what the Pharisees will tell them.
No one needs to know the truth… its too important of a secret.
Travel is very difficult … news does not travel well… no news papers… very few can read for that matter… and what you will read will always be the governments propaganda. In these times people were deep in that very cave that Plato spoke of... very deep in this cave. Even if someone were to tell them the truth, they would reject it as heresy and kill him.
These are the waters within which those men from Villanova begin to build Rome. For the next 200 years they will fight the wars while the Greeks enjoy the fruits of their new empire.
Philistines, Phoenicians and Carthaginians
To understand Rome you must understand the "sea peoples". This was a loose alliance of maritime cities that traded all over the Mediterranean. They had made the Mediterranean sea their empire.
The Phoenicians just north of Canaan, the Philistines are at the sea to the west of Canaan and the Carthaginians west of Egypt and in the lands that are now Spain. They traded and sometimes ruled the costal areas from well protected port cities throughout the Mediterranean sea. In the dominance for Italy these would be the people that would give the Romans most of their troubles.
The Israelites were land warriors and the Egyptians as well. The Phoenicians on the other hand were sea warriors. The Phoenician port city of Tyre dates back to 2700 BC. It is believed that these are people founded Carthage.
One of the hardest battles Alexander the Great had fought was against Tyre. A fortified port city with 150 foot walls. In 332 BC with Tyre defeated by Alexander, the Roman conquest of Italy is made possible but not easy. The Carthaginians that control the far western Mediterranean, that have seen Tyre taken by the Greeks will make all efforts to take back the Eastern trading cities they see the Greeks and Romans taking from them.
The Romans are an association of farmers and traders trying to control of lands for personal gain. They have a republic where individuals can rise according to their value. These men that came from Villanova, begin to attack their neighbors and steadily take over the Italian Peninsula. The costal cities were controlled by these sea peoples is a problem. The defeat of Tyre by Alexander the Great opens the way for Rome to take these costal areas. They will begin to gain processions in Europe, Macedon, Persia, and finally the Carthaginians.
212 BC Syracuse or Sicily, once a Carthaginian strong hold, falls to Rome
197 BC Macedon the former home of Alexander the Great becomes a Roman province.
190 BC The Seleucid empire which were the Greek rulers of Persia is defeated by the Romans.
The Carthaginians almost ended Rome. Under Hannibal in about 200 BC they invade Rome by taking troops and elephants from Spain and coming into Rome from the Alps.
Finally in 146 BC the Romans sack and completely destroy the city Of Carthage.
This frees Rome. It's now very battle hardened armies have only themselves to fight for control of the known world. Egypt is a land they can take... but control is a separate issue.
Rome has become more powerful than the Greek empire and its problems are now internal ... who will govern Rome. A family feud of Global proportions.
Soon, Persia, and Egypt, and Judea will have a new master. As you can see we are now getting closer to year one.
Julius Caesar
The world we know today, and the way we understand Christianity pivots on this mans actions.
100 years after the Roman defeat of Carthage. Rome has consolidated territories in Spain, England, and Gaul. By the time of Julius Caesar they control Egypt, Persia, and Greek Macedonia. They effectively rule western civilization.
They are now real Romas, a people that fought their way from Villanova 500 years before, with an army and no one to fight, they now begin to fight amongst themselves for power.
In 50BC Julius Caesar is heading to Rome to end a civil war. He has won the world and now comes to take Rome itself. He represents a democratic power base and comes to fight Pompey who represents the established wealthy families that wish an end to the republic.
The underling cause of this civil war is the class struggle between these established families and a growing citizen class. The two factions are called Optimates and Populares .
Optimates... Are dedicated to keep power in the hands of noble families, wished to put an end to the republic and were headed by Pompey.
Populares... Are a roman aristocracy that relies on citizen and popular support for political power, The hope of democracy if you will, and for whom Caesar stands.
On January 10 49BC Caesar croses the Rubecon and then inters Rome, Pompey, the Senators that are with him and their armies sail to Epirus. Epirus is where the oldest Hellenic oracle is, where Alexander the Greats' mother came from. A region that Aristotle considered to have been the most ancient part of Greece and where the Hellenes originated.
Think about this for one moment... These men have gone to the most holy ground they know to fight the last battle of a long civil war.
To the Roman religion these must be extremely sacred grounds.
Here in 48BC Caesar wins his battle with Pompey. Caesar is now appointed dictator, with Mark Anthony as his Master of the Horse.
Pompey and his remaining forces go to Egypt where there is an ongoing civil war between Cleopatra VII and her brother Ptolemy XIII. He seeks protection from Ptolemy XIII, but is murdered instead.
Caesar comes to Egypt to deal with Pompey's remaining forces. He sides with Cleopatra in the civil war and defeats her rival Ptolemy XIII. He then installs Cleopatra as Queen, and has a child with her. Born in 47 BC one year after his battle with Pompey back in Epirus.
That moved quickly... barely meet the girl and have a child and not get married? They are Gods, who would marry them?
He has just beat the wealthy establishment of Rome. He has won battles, but has not taken control of the economies that these wealthy families control. He must pay his soldiers, and keep the economy going. Cleopatra is the wealthiest person in the world. She is the Nile river and the source of grain for his troops and people. Caesar has favored alliances with Egypt and the Jews a policy that will unite in peace these civilizations.
With this child and alliance he can pay his troops. With his new family his child will be the next ruler of not only Rome but Egypt as well. The Roman senate will fear a dictator and the end of their usefulness.
Caesar is declared "Pontifex Maximus" for life, making him the administrator of jus divinum or divine law.
This family is now the law of two religions, the Roman and the Egyptian, and this child will inherit the known world as a God.
February 15, 44 BCE Caesar is made Dictator in Perpetuum and is promptly assassinated on March 15, by a group of senators.
Cleopatra
At the time of the assassination of Julius Caesar, Cleopatra had lived for two years in Rome, from the summer of 46 BC, with their son Caesarean. They would leave immediately after the death of Caesar for Egypt. Back in Rome Mark Anthony, Caesars second in command will try to restore order. He will join with Octavian the adopted son of Caesar, and he will marry his sister Octavia.(People married and had children to build alliances of power.)
October of 41 BC Mark Anthony meets with Cleopatra in Tarsus (please note Tarsus is where Paul is from), he has children with her. Then in September of 40 BC he marries Octavian's sister and leaves her pregnant and returns to Egypt, to get support from Cleopatra in his battle his battle with is brother in law Octavian.
This World War is all about something very personal, a sorted family matter in which the riches people in the world conspire and kill each other to see who will end up with all the loot.
Capturing Jerusalem in 37 BC, Mark Anthony installs Herod as puppet king of Judea. Caesarian, then thirteen years of age, was formally made " King of Kings by Anthony and Cleopatra in 34 BC.
War started in a divided Rome in 31 BC, with Cleopatra backing Mark Anthony. Mark Anthony and Octavian would confront each other in Actium, on the east coast of Greece.
They fight here because these are the front lines between Rome, and what was once the Greek.. empire. Cleopatra who was in fact a Greek Macedonian Queen would be there in person along with Mark Anthony. As the battle goes poorly for Anthony and Cleopatra, they leave the battle return to Egypt.
August 1, 30 BC, Octavian is in Egypt takes the city of Alexandria. First Mark Anthony takes his life and then Cleopatra commits suicide on August 12, 30BC.
History will say that she tried to send Caesarean to India via the Red Sea. Octavian would say he had killed him and "there can not be two Caesars"
Rome will now change from a Republic to an Empire. Gone will be the democratic changes that Julius Caesar had come to Rome to establish 20 years ago. This moment also marks, the end of both the Hellenistic(Greek) Age and the Ptolemaic Kingdom of Egypt.
The Pharaoh Gods of the Egyptians are gone for ever.